Gnawed – Patience Is Waste (C40, Out-Of-Body Records)

Gnawed is at it again with Patience Is Waste, a solid forty minutes of power electronics set to stabbing, pulsating rhythms. There’s not always a lot of excess noise on display here; often Gnawed gives his tracks some room by simply allowing oscillating textures to fill a void while vocals run over the sound.

That’s not always the case, but it’s prevalent. Opener “Sands” establishes a very repetitive beat until the vocals finally kick in minutes later; the idea of the vocals, the whorls of the screams, are stronger because of the looping. It’s a tactic Gnawed uses well; there’s that same sense of an industrialized loop in “Spoiled” where Gnawed continues to give us those deep, guttural snarls.

But there are also some very good drones, slower parts where the industrialized clanking and synths build nicely while the screams flow along with it. “Tension” is a good example of this, and it really expresses its title; “Serenity” carries a drone tone throughout while spoken vocals chant underneath it, along with some pounding sounds that only hint at a rhythm. When the drones occur, they’ve got a very dark, warehouse-like vibe to them which work well for Patience Is Waste.

All told, this is a refreshing release from Gnawed – it’s got those grinding PE loops, but different enough to warrant picking up. When other releases tend to blend together, Gnawed remains unique, and though Patience Is Waste might feel cold, it’s also somewhat comforting.

From now until further notice, I will not be accepting digital submissions (unless they are digital-only release, in which case I will make an exception based on the nature of the request). It is too hard to deal with the many, many emails of Bandcamp links. I will be attempting to finish up the digital submissions I have already received.